Inside look at TVA coal ash spill

GQ has a long feature on the Tennessee coal ash spill that occurred in December.

Among the salient points: The dike holding back a pit of coal ash 60 feet above the water line was itself made of no more than ash.

The amount of toxic material released was 10 times more than in the Exxon Valdez spill.

The report TVA issued on the incident was heavily edited to understate the severity of the spill.

And my favorite quote:

Hawthorn [the coal industry’s PR firm] polled what the firm considered “public opinion leaders” in September 2007 and again at the end of 2008 on… whether they favored burning coal to generate electricity. The first go-round was a split: 46 percent in favor, 50 percent opposed. But after a year of Hawthorn bleating “clean coal” over and over, support rose to 72 percent—and opposition nose-dived to 22 percent. Results such as these would be impressive no matter what the issue. Yet they are especially so in this instance, because the idea Hawthorn is selling&mdashCoal is clean!—is complete horseshit.